Asian Games Highlights: India Win Three Sailing Medals

India’s women’s hockey team lost 1-2 to Japan in the final of the 18th Asian Games. Japan took the lead through Minami Shimizu in the 11th minute but India pulled level through Neha Goyal in the 25th minute. Motomi Kawamura regained Japan’s lead in the 44th minute. India couldn’t find their equaliser and had to settle for the silver medal. It was India’s second silver medal in women’s hockey in Asiad history. The last time they had finished second was in the 1998 edition. India clinched three medals in sailing with Varsha Gautham/Sweta Shervegar clinching silver in the 49er FX Women’s event, Harshita Tomar claiming bronze in the Open Laser 4.7 and Varun Thakkar Ashok/Chengappa Ganapathy Kelapanda taking home the bronze in the 49er men’s event. The 20-year-old Varsha and 27-year-old Sweta combined to produce a total score of 40 after 15 races to finish second at the Indonesia National Sailing Centre. The 16-year-old Harshita totalled 62 after race 12 to finish third. In Squash, the Indian men’s team took home the bronze medal after losing 0-2 to Hong Kong in semifinals. (MEDAL TALLY)

Highlights of Asian Games 2018, Day 13 straight from Jakarta, Indonesia

07:10 IST: Hello and welcome to the live blog of the Day 13 of the Asian Games 2018.

Earlier, the Indian women’s squash team defeated Malaysia 2-0 to enter the gold medal match. Meanwhile, India’s Ragino Kiro and Naocha Singh Laitonjam failed to qualify for the Kayak single (K1) 200m women’s final and Kayak single (K2) 200m men’s final respectively. Apart from this, India qualified for the Canoe double (C2) 200 men’s final.

The Day 13 of the Asiad saw India’s Ranjit Singh compete in the Men’s Keirin Cycling Track event but was eliminated after finishing second last in Heat 2 of Round 1 Repechage event. Along with him Esow Alben, too, was eliminated after finishing last in Heat 1 of men’s Keirin Round 1 Repechage. In Judo, Rajwinder Kaur’s Asiad campaign halted after she lost her women’s +78kg Repechage round to Jiawen Tsai of Chinese Taipei. In Table Tennis, India’s Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their respective men’s singles Round of 16 match. Manika Batra, on the other hand, lost her women’s singles Round of 16 matches as well

Johnson was among the front runners right from the start while Tiouali took the early lead. However, Johnson powered away towards the end and the Bahrain athlete was not able to match the Indian’s explosive speed. Manjit ran a more tactical race. He had positioned himself near the back of the group and tried to produce his trademark explosive burst going into the final lap. But with the runners closely bunched together in the rear and middle of the group, he found it difficult to create space which ultimately cost him a medal.

In the women’s 4X400m event, the Indian quartet of Hima Das, Raju Poovamma, Saritaben Laxmanbhai Gayakwad and Vismaya Koroth registered a time of 3:28.72 to finish at the top of the podium. Bahrain got silver with 3:30.61 while the quartet from Vietnam clocked their season’s best time of 3:33.23 to bag the bronze medal.

The Indians were off to a great start as Hima gave them the early lead. The Assam teenager was a bit slow off the blocks, but produced a superb finishing kick going into the final bend to leave the other runners behind. The other Indian runners built on the lead and claimed what turned out be a comfortable victory in the end.

In the men’s 4X400m relay, the Indian quartet of Muhammed Kunhu, Dharun Ayyasamy, Muhammed Anas and Rajiv Arokia clocked a time of 3:1.85 to finish second. Qatar created a new Asian record of 3:00.56 to win the gold while Japan finished the race in 3:01.94 and bagged the bronze medal. Boasting an all African line-up, Qatar dominated the race from start to finish. The Indians were at the fourth position during the initial stages but recovered in superb fashion to take the second spot going into the final lap.

In women’s discus, Seema Punia had to settle for the bronze medal. Seema registered a throw of 62.26 metres to ensure a place on the podium. China clinched the top two positions with Chen Yang (65.12m) and Feng Bin (64.25m) getting gold and silver, respectively.